HAPPY NEW YEAR

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential." ~Ellen Goodman


"May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions." ~Joey Adams

I still can't believe that another year has passed and tomorrow I will have to fill in several checks with the year 2011, until I get used to the new year.  As usual my husband and I are going to try and lose weight, I already have been exercising, walking on the ole "dreadmill."  Now if I can get the diet thing going, I will be doing good.

This evening we invited my son and his family to go to Mesquite and eat dinner at Los Lupies.  Merritt and Mirissa met us there.  Sierra went to a New Years party and then was going to the dance at our church.  It is still hard to believe how fast she is growing.  She has grown into a beautiful young lady. 

We enjoyed dinner, and conversation with each other.  Then off to Walmart to do a little shopping.  We can't go to Mesquite without stopping at Walmart.  I was out of Mouse and my hair hasn't been looking too good. Guess, what we bought?  Rocky Road Ice cream.  Our last big bing of the year.  I was given some hot fudge topping for Christmas and I want to try it out.  Good excuse!
 
Well, that is how we usually spend New Years, going out to dinner, and then coming home before all the drunks hit the road.  I will be going to bed before the new year comes in.  So I will watch New York's celebration.  Whoops! it is going on right now.  So Happy New Year to my friends and family, and good night.

Christmas Eve Party 2010

I cooked a Christmas Eve dinner and while I was cooking we sang Christmas carols.  A couple of months ago, I bought two sets of Christmas sing along disks.  So I played one of them and handed out the song books that came with them.  Bret, Laura, Sierra, Sherry and I were singing our hearts out as I finished cooking dinner.
Frank came in later and joined in the fun.

I cooked a pork loin, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and Sherry helped me put together a salad bar.  We had just started to eat when Merritt showed up and headed to the kitchen to get his plate full of food.  Then Jason, Renee and Rozlynn came later from the Ramos Christmas party.  They were too full to eat anything, but Renee made her a big salad.      

Rozlynn became the center of attention.  She is walking and looks so tiny.  Renee changed her from her pretty red Christmas dress and put on this cute fleece outfit. 

Of course I had to pick her up and play with her.  I was trying to get her to do her oval mouth Ohhhh thing that she does.  Guess Grandma was the only one doing it.

Oh! Oh! I am doing the Luker nose pose



Mommy had put a pretty bow in her hair and she looked like a little Christmas doll.  After dinner we were all stuffed and sat around and visited.  Well, they visited and Frank & I cleaned up the dinner mess.  Then we gathered around in the family room and decided on how to play the White Elephant game, everyone had different ways of doing it.  We finally decided on how to play it and had a lot of fun opening presents that soon were taken by someone else.  Then I gave out the few gifts that I had for everyone and had them open them.  We were just supposed to have the White elephant gift exchange, but I had to buy a few small gifts for the family.  I had recorded one of those cute books that you get from Hallmark for Rozlynn and it wasn't working at first.  I was bummed, then Jason got it to work.  We had a lot of fun, eating, visiting and laughing.    
I didn't take many pictures as I was busy cooking, and then cleaning up afterwards, but Sierra took some really nice ones with her camera and I think I can use her memory card and download the pictures to my computer.  So I will try and do another posting with her pictures.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I would like to wish all my family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I have been preparing my Christmas Eve dinner for my family.  We are going to have an Elephant Gift party tonight, and it should be fun. 

I am cooking a pork loin, and will serve mashed potatoes, gravy, salad bar, and corn.  I made pumpkin pies yesterday and a cherry cheese pie for desert.  I haven't made pumpkin pie in a long time, so I hope they will be good.  I used to make everything from scratch, even pumpkin pie.  I don't have the energy to do that any more.  So I will be positng pictures of our party soon.

Boys will be Boys

 Last week my phone rang and it was my neighbor. She had been over and had rang my door bell and no answer.  I guess I was in the back room and didn't hear it ring.  She said she would be right over.  When I opened the door her young son was with her and I could tell that something was wrong.  She asked me if I had seen any little boys peering over my fence.  I looked back at her and was puzzled at the comment, and replied no.  Any way she told Cody to tell me what they had been doing and Cody busted out in tears and was sobbing.  I couldn't understand him because he was crying so hard.  So I had to ask his Mom to explain what Cody was saying.  I guess he and his friends noticed that there were a lot of birds flying into my yard, so they decided to get their BB guns and try and shoot birds.  Cody didn't have a BB gun, but was with them so he was a part of the gang.

I was crying with him.  I felt so bad for him.  I told him and his Mom that "Boys will be Boys."  I went on to tell them that my sons  had gotten into trouble a long time ago shooting their guns at a neighbor's old car.  I gave Cody a hug and told him I was sorry.  Maybe I should have said something different and after thinking about it, I should have told him that if the boys were shooting in to my back yard.  They were shooting towards our fifth wheel travel trailer, and our home, and they were lucky that they didn't shoot a window out or damage our trailer.  But tender hearted me, was sympathetic and hugged Cody and said "I am sorry."  Then I thanked him for telling me what he had done.  He was the only boy who came an apologized and he didn't even have a BB gun. 

Feeding the Hawk

 Frank and I feed a variety of birds in our back yard.  The other morning as I opened the bedroom blinds I noticed a hawk eating one of those birds.  It made me feel sad.  It is hard to watch the cruelty of Mother Nature.  I know that it is a way of keeping the bird numbers in control, but it is still hard to watch.

The very next morning when I opened our dining room blinds there he was again having breakfast.  It made me realize that I was giving him a gourmet variety of birds.  There are Quail, dove, blackbirds, small birds, and big birds.  I am making the hawk's hunting easy picking.   It made me feel a little sad and I thought maybe I should stop feeding the birds for a while so they won't come to my yard to eat.

I also noticed another smaller hawk coming to have breakfast.  I am thinking the smaller one is a female, and the bigger one is a male.  He must have given her the message "Come with me and I will show you a feast." Well it has been raining cats and dogs the past few days and we haven't been putting seed out for the birds, but we noticed today in the heavy rain the birds still came to feed.  I haven't seen the hawk, but I know he will be back for breakfast, and bringing his friend.  As I watched the smaller hawk, she flew into the air and just missed a dove.  A feather floated down from the sky so I know it was a very close encounter for the dove. 

It is so entertaining to watch the birds come in to feed, and especially the quail after they have hatched out their babies.  They bring them to eat and it is fascinating to see them come into the yard.  The males are very protective of their little ones.  The male is the first one to jump on the fence and gives the signal that it is safe to come into the yard. They run so fast and very seldom fly.   So now I have to make a decision, do I continue to feed the birds or do I stop so the hawk has to work for his food? 

Doctor's Visit - Good News

We went into Vegas last Tuesday the 14th which is my grand daughter Renee's birthday.  We took Frank's son and daughter out to dinner for our annual Christmas dinner.  We went to Mimi's and had a wonderful dinner there.  We had a nice visit with Chip and Robin and it was great to see them.  We left with a promise to try and see them more often. 

Jason & Roz

After dinner we went to Renee and Jason's so I could give Renee her birthday gift.  Sherry came after work, and we had a nice visit with them.  Roz was getting sleepy by the time we got there, so I didn't get to play with her.  She is really walking good now, and it still is a surprise to see her walking all over the place.  She is getting good enough at walking that she is doing more walking than crawling.  She is so dang cute, you just want to pick her up and love on her. 

We spent the night at Sherry's condo, and the next day was Frank's appointment with Dr. Duke his back surgeon.  We were expecting the worse and instead had a pleasant surprise as Dr. Duke went through the X-Ray disk with us.  He showed us that Frank's area of surgery was healing, and in fact gave Frank permission to go ahead and start to golf again.  That made Frank's day as he has been patiently waiting to golf again.  Guess where he went this morning?  You guessed it.  He went to the park and golfed with one of the old farts he used to golf with.  By the way, Dr. Duke wished us Happy Holidays and we came back with Merry Christmas, he then replied Merry Christmas back to us.

We did find out that the pain pills Frank is taking, are causing a lot of his pain problems.  Kind of like a rebound situation, but mostly it is blocking his body's mechanism that controls pain.  So he was told to get off from the medication in a months time.  Frank has already gone down to a lower dosage and has been cutting the pills in half, but now he will have to gradually keep taking less and less each day. 

The doctor also showed us all the arthritis and spurs in his spine, which is contributing to his back pain.  We both know that at our age we will never be free of arthritis pain.  Just part of the growing old thing. DARN!!!  I am just happy that Frank's surgery area is fusing and healing.  So maybe we will be able to take off with our fifth wheel next summer.  We are planning on a trial trip in the spring.

Pearl Harbor Day - My Brother's Death - 1986

A Young Bobby and his wife Artelle

Twenty four years ago on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th, my brother passed away from a self inflicted gun shot wound.  I will always remember that day and the phone call from my brother Allen.  It was such a shock.  I tried to fly to Salt Lake City to see him before they pulled the plug on him, but it didn't work out. As I was waiting in the ticket line a friend let me know that he had passed away so Frank and I drove up to Salt Lake for the funeral the next day.


Bobby was a real character, but they say that funny people sometimes have sadness in them.  The last time I saw him, I sensed that something was terribly wrong and said something like, "Don't you even think about doing something stupid like Chris did."  Chris was our cousin and he and Bobby grew up together.  After being in Vietnam, Chris was messed up, and he eventually committed suicide.  I really didn't think my brother would do the same thing.

Bobby also was drafted into the Vietnam war, and when he was in training they would hand him a gun, and he would hand it right back.  They finally gave up and made him a Medic, and that is how he became a nurse.  He was allowed to get out of the service on a hardship discharge when my Mom passed away, and he took on the responsibility of raising my two brothers.

Bobby was so talented in many ways, he was a male nurse, a cartoon artist, a husband and a father.  We had a messed up alcoholic mother and father and I am sure this contributed to his problems in life as it affected all of us kids in the family in one way or another.  One of the memories of him is the story he told me of taking meds to all of his patients on roller skates.  His patients loved this, but he got time off from work for this incident.  He was always doing crazy things and making people laugh.

He drew cartoon characters of us and I have a file folder full of them.  He made extra money at Christmas by doing Christmas cartoon type paintings on windows, homes and businesses. 

This painting was done by Bobby and was on the wall of his apartment in Salt Lake at the time of his death.  We feel he was telling us of his death as he is sitting in the clouds.  He loved clowns and I think this is a self painting of himself.  "All Good Clowns go to Heaven."

This is one of the many times he came to see me in Nevada.  He brought his kids and the little red head is Corby his daughter.  My grand daughter Renee is in the background.  He was doing his usual thing drawing cartoon characters of our family.  I loved him very much and I miss him.

Christmas

It's CHRISTmas...not X-mas!!! Don't remove Christ from HIS birthday!!! Post this if you agree...Please don't X out the Lord!!!!! (I'd love to see this on every one's wall!!!) Christ is the reason for the season


This was on facebook and it made me think of Aunt Bevy.  She hated it when anyone used Xmas and promptly corrected me a long time ago when I used it in a letter to her.  So from then on, I made sure I used Christmas in letter writing, etc.  Also I have decided if any clerk in a store says Happy Holidays to me, I will return with a Merry Christmas back to them. 
 
That is the big problem in the world today, people are taking our Savior and God out of our lives.....no prayers in schools, trying to take him out of the government, etc. ....and look where we are in the world today.  Hopefully it will humble us all and make us turn our hearts and prayers back to God.  Just a thought for this Christmas season.

Winter is here

When Frank heard on the news that it was going to freeze he went out and picked some of our roses and put them in a vase.  A couple of them were the ones that have a wonderful rose scent to them.  The aroma of roses filled our kitchen area for a while.  It was really cold for a few days, freezing cold.  That is all it took was one night of freezing and all the leaves have turned brown and will be falling off from the trees soon.  I don't mind the cold at all after the hot summer we had.  I can throw on a sweat shirt, or cover up in a blanket, where as in the summer it is hard to cool down. 

We have been on the go again.  Friday we went to Mesquite and Frank had a CT Scan of his back.  On the 15th he will be seeing Dr. Duke who will look at the X-Rays and determine how his back is doing.  Frank feels that it isn't healing the way it should.  Guess we will find out next Wednesday. 

We went to St. George last Monday so Frank could get his Sleep Apnea Appliance.  The bottom piece isn't fitting right and is slipping off from his teeth, so I am sure when we go over for his follow up appointment Tuesday, they will have to have a new one made again.  This is his second one.  It definitely helps, and he has been sleeping better and the best part is no snoring.  That helps me to sleep better too. Yea!!!!

We had a hair day with Renee last Wednesday and spent the night with Sherry.  I was disappointed as I didn't get to see Rozlynn at the beauty shop as Renee takes her to a day care.  Renee and Jason surprised us later that evening and brought Rozlynn to Sherry's condo.  She is so dang cute and we had some fun with her. Rozlynn started walking on her birthday so that was a surprise for us.  She looks so tiny to be walking.  She can crawl faster than she can walk, so she drops down to crawl when she wants to go really fast.  I also had fun playing with Ozzie, Sherry's cat. 

Thursday morning on her way to work, Sherry dropped me off at the nail salon and I treated myself to a pedicure. Frank picked me up and we ate at Red Lobster, and then went to the Galleria Mall to do some Christmas shopping.  I was looking for a sweater, but couldn't find one, so we headed for home as I ended up being exhausted.  The story of my life.  Exhaustion is my friend.  One that I really don't want. I have been feeling rotten and need to go back to my doctor and have an A1C test done.  I know I need to stick to a low carb diet. How hard is that during the holidays?!! I am walking on my "dreadmill" every day that I can.  So at least I am doing that.  I have been feeling dizzy, in fact at church today I almost fell.  I feel like I am drunk, and anyone watching me may think I am.  LOL

Thanksgiving - Christmas Decorations

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Bret and Laura's home.  It was just the four of us as Sierra was sick and stayed in her bedroom until we were through eating and then she came out to eat.  It was kind of nice being small, no stress, and kind of quiet, until Bret told a joke and we all laughed our heads off.  As soon as we started to eat Bret was doing his usual ummmmmm as he was eating. Something he does when he is enjoying what ever he is eating.  Laura sets a beautiful table, and everything was yummy!!!!!

Bret carved the turkey breast.  We cook turkey breast in the crock pot and it is always moist and the gravy from it is the best.  Bret and I are gravy lovers and I put it over my turkey, dressing, and of course potatoes.  We had the works, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, yams, rolls, and of course cranberry sauce.  Yum!!  Then home made pumpkin pie for desert.  I made some cherry cheese pies, Frank's favorite. Oh and I made a big salad bar. Laura cooked the whole dinner.  Thanks Laura!!!!

Frank waiting for dinner

Laura all finished eating



We were all stuffed but still had some pumpkin pie.  We sat around for a while and visited.  It was a great day at the Staleys.  Merritt and Marissa came after we were finished eating and filled their plates and heated them in the microwave.  They visited a while and then headed over to Mesquite to visit Marissa's family and have dinner with them.  Hopefully it was later as they had to be stuffed.  Thanks Bret and Laura for a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Everything was great!!!!!

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Santa's Land

Santa waves as people drive by.  The kids in the neighborhood have their parents drive by our house so they can see Santa.  Our whole corner is all lite up as our neighbors across the street have their place all decorated too.  In fact they have a lot more lights than we do.  Every one teases us asking us if we are trying to keep up with them, and we just say "There is no way we can keep up with them."

Newly Painted Nativity

Frank repaired some of the broken pieces in our nativity and he decided to paint them in colors as they were all grey.  It really brightened it up.  I helped paint a couple of pieces.

Santa Clause

I haven't been feeling too well, so I didn't put many decorations up in the house.  This is one of my favorites.  Bert and Ernie were part of a McDonald meal that I bought for Garen's kids a long time ago when I was baby sitting them in Kingman, AZ  It makes me think of them as they gave them to me.  Maybe they thought they were too old for them.  I put up my slim tree, and bought some new decorations for it.  I bought some unbreakable balls as last year the ones I dropped broke in a million pieces on my tile floor.  I was cleaning up glass way after the holidays.

This is a little tree that Merritt and Sierra gave me a couple of years ago.  They wrote cute things to me on those little tags you see hanging from the tree.  It is really special to me.